


The Rite

by rey_exe



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Dark Reylo, Dream Sex, F/M, Gen, Slow Burn, everyone is angry about everything ever except snoke, hella angst, post tfa canon divergent
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-12
Updated: 2018-03-12
Packaged: 2019-03-30 04:54:48
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,567
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13943025
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rey_exe/pseuds/rey_exe
Summary: In the face of death, Rey has always chosen life. Survival is coded into her DNA, but with the fate of her friends hanging in the balance, how much longer is this choice her own?ORHaving been accosted by the First Order before the arrival of Chewbacca on Starkiller, Rey is dragged before Snoke and made an offer she cannot refuse.





	The Rite

**Author's Note:**

> WELL WELL WELL if it isn't the dawning realization this here is a repost and mild revamp of a series I started building back in 2016 and posted some time last year. Naturally I picked it up around the time I got a job and became a dog mom so updates didn't happen. Now that my shit is together and with all the shiny new info we got with TLJ has my jimmies rustled, it's Time to polish it up and throw it back out into the world!

**UNABLE TO STAY ; UNWILLING TO LEAVE**

 

The earth trembles underfoot, bucking wildly as the girl stumbles through snow capped trees. Adrenaline still courses sharp through her veins from the fight, her heart beating a painful cadence against the cage of her ribs; as if it would to burst free and take flight with every throb. Each gasp she takes sends fire down her throat and straight to her her lungs, inciting fear that those too would soon erupt in protest.

Her frantic thoughts dart hazily between two objectives: find Finn and escape, find Finn and escape. It keeps sore legs pumping as she dodges falling branches and leaps over cracked ice. It keeps her bruised and broken body numb to the pain that was certain to hit the moment she slowed down. She could almost feel the phantom blows her adversary had dealt mere moments prior, the heavy weight of him as he beared down on her with his all his might. Had throwing her into a tree been necessary?

Hazel eyes squint through the darkness, falling instantly on her friend where he is sprawled some fifty yards away. It’s a mad dash to reach him, each quake threatening to dislodge her footing and send her careening back into gaping chasms that chased her. Her breath caught in her throat, nearly strangling the cry of his name as she darts to his side. His own breath is shallow and labored, it crystallizes before his face in thin white clouds as she turns him over.  

He was still alive!

His heart still beat beneath the tips of her fingers, fluttering like moth wings as she pressed them beneath his jaw. But for how much longer?

The planet roars in defeat, leaving Rey in no question that it would not be for much longer. Tears prick her eyes, lips quivering as she fights to construct a plan. She doesn’t know where the Falcon is, and she’s certain she won’t be able to carry him that far in time, not at the rate this wretched place was deteriorating.

A whimper dares to slip free, muffled by Finn’s damp jacket as she presses her face against it. Their death would be _quick_ , at least. If the ground below them held out long enough, they would be vaporized when the base exploded, stardust amid the endless velvet night. It was better than starving to death on Jakku, or burning beneath its unforgiving sun. The girl had watched people die slow and ugly deaths, this was better than anything she could have hoped for…

But it was not what she _wanted_. No, this was not fair, she had only just escaped. Freed from her shackles she had the universe at her fingertips. All of the planets, all of the cities, forests, and islands she’d dreamt of exploring turn to ash before her. She would never see any of it now. She would never taste all of the wonderful food that existed across the stars, nor would she quench her thirst with fine things to drink. Gone were all the friends she would make, friends like _Finn_ ( for certainly, there must be more wonderful people like him, like, Chewie, _like_ _Han…_ ) Whimpers turn to sobs, tears rolling down cold cheeks in stinging rivulets. They had come back for her, they had come to rescue a lowly scavenger girl from a backwater planet they barely knew and they had died for it.     

She wasn’t worth that, not when they were so valuable to the Resistance. Finn was terribly clever, he was well versed in leadership. He would have made a fine addition to their cause. And Han… She couldn’t bear to think of him, not yet. Rey could hardly process his loss, it had happened so fast. Perhaps her eyes had played tricks on her, perhaps she had been drugged in her cell and it was all a terrible dream? There had been days on Jakku when she was so parched that her mind would construct of paradise on every heat-blurred horizon. It was naive for her to hope that he would appear from behind one of the great trees that surrounded them, demanding to know what was taking so long in his gruff voice.

Her optimism dwindles further still as another shock splits the forest before them, leaving a great ravine in its wake. Rey holders tighter to Finn, her heart ceasing its futile pounding against her ribs to beat up her throat, choking her with fear. _Please, no. . ._

Above the roar there is another sound that meets her ears, the steady hum in the distance she knew well. As her head raises, so does hope, turning a tearstained face to the void before her. White lights break through the trees, rendering her blind as the craft hovered before them.

She is instantly elated, her heart surging with joy as she blinks in the bright rays.

_They would not die here._

It was not until her eyes adjust that her hope is crushed once more, vanishing so surely that she could moan in despair. It is a sleek black vessel that descended before them, not the Falcon, nor a friendly Resistance x-wing pilot that had spotted the pair. Victory turns to ash in her mouth as it lands a short distance away, two sets of white-clad troopers marching hurriedly down the ramp towards them, blasters held at the ready. Rey is quick to scrabble for the saber at her side, eyes averted as she hastens to find the button that would ignite the blue beam it. A shot from one of the blasters sends the weapon flying from shaking hands, landing several feet away where it was immediately scooped up out of her reach.

Weaponless, Rey saw only one option before her. The girl lunges forward with a snarl, wrapping slender arms around the troopers legs, sending them careening to the frozen ground with a grunt. She struggles to wrestle the weapon from their hands, to gain SOME sort of leverage kicking at every exposed inch she can reach, anything to make them relinquish their tight grip. She had escaped from gangs of scavengers equally formidable in the past, she ought to be able to handle a squadron of troopers easily. 

 _Scavengers_ were not trained to deflect such feeble attacks though, they were not equipped to. They were not trained from birth to disarm and kill with ease, nor were they shielded by such finely crafted armor. They were just people trying to survive, not creatures bred for war.

Two pairs of hands wrap around her biceps, yanking her harshly from their fallen comrade. She thrashes in their unforgiving grasp, eyes narrowed and teeth bared like a rabid beast. They hold her fast, unwavering as they begin to march towards the craft without so much as a glance at the man sprawled in the snow.

Panic rises in a great wave, a stream of curses and unintelligible shrieks spewing from her lips, her efforts redoubling. No matter how she writhes in their grasp though, she can’t break their hold and they continue their trek towards the ship undeterred. Finn’s still figure lays vulnerably out in the open and Rey has never known desperation until then. Not the moments she has lost her footing in the graveyard of giants, not when Plutt denied her the sustenance she needs for the week, and not when her own life in endangered by the petty thieves that skulk through backwater planets such as hers.

“Let me go! LET ME GO!” An enraged howl tears from her throat as she fights against her assailants. She calls desperately on the force with all of her might, to free her so that she may die at the side of her friend. 

The peace and calm she had stumbled upon whilst dueling Ren was nowhere to be found, no matter how she willed her mind to still, to let it fill her once more. She borders on hysterical, bellowing as her feet catch on the metal ramp, struggling for purchase. 

“NO! FINN! GO BACK FOR HIM, PLEASE! **_FINN!_ ** ”

Her words are lost on them as her wrists  and ankles are bound tight, durasteel locking them into place, ending her fruitless struggling. Rey can do no more than sob as she is dragged like a sack of Corellian potatoes into the brightly lit interior and thrown onto her back. She makes another valiant attempt at escape, wriggling onto her belly until she is able to inch herself a foot or so across the cold floor. This earns her a sharp kick to exposed ribs, a pair of hands wrapped tight around her arms once more, lifting her prone form to the nearest seat, strapping her in and taking the place at her side. She watches helplessly the doors slide shut, lips mouthing wordlessly as she is cut off once more from the only person to ever come back.

Rey is despondent as the ship rises above the ghost forest, seats vibrating as it breaks through the atmosphere, into open space. Dark eyes remain glued to sealed doors, red-rimmed and unfocused in her stricken face. She cannot see the implosion, but she feels the shocks that reverberate through the ship some five minutes later, sending fluorescent lights flickering above. Grief cuts through shock, leaving a gaping hole in the vicinity of her sternum that leaves her gasping, choking on pain.  The girl longs to curl in on herself, to shield her tender innards from more harm, for the blows just keep falling.

“If you had accepted my offer, he might have been spared.” comes a husky voice from the opposite end of the ship. Rey’s head whips around, startled by the sudden voice. So fixated was she on the front of the ship that her eyes had yet to stray towards the rear. Kylo was slumped in a makeshift cot, thick droplets of blood staining the durasteel floor around him. He looked utterly defeated, despite the contempt that laced his voice as dark eyes fixated on the tears that streamed down her cheeks. 

A medical droid was busy lasering away the heavy black garments that adorned him, peeling them away from his body like an onion to reveal his wounds. Rey could not help but feel a savage delight at the extent of the damage, eyes roving over the brutal gash across the expanse of his face to the blaster wound at his side. It’s gratifying in a way that terrifies her to see him in such a state. Not once had she delighted in such violent acts. Every deed was done in order to survive and warranted ONLY a sigh of relief when it had passed. And yet, as she looked upon his broken body, the jubilation she felt at his suffering was almost euphoric. She wanted him writhing, she wanted him to PAY in kind for the pain he and inflicted on herself and those she cared for.

As if he sensed this, his posture stiffened, resilient before her as bacta is carefully smeared across his wounds, not enough to heal him completely, but enough to keep him alive. His lip is curled in an ugly  sneer, staring down his nose at the girl that had beaten him so thoroughly. 

“ _Liar._ ” She hisses through numb lips, fists clenched tight in her lap. The voice that that speaks is not her own, hoarse and aching from all of her screaming. She can still see Finn laying in the snow, the florid light of the shuttle illuminating his still figure. She can still see Han toppling off the catwalk into an abyss, murdered by the BEAST only a meters away. How much death could one witness before they broke? How heavy could one’s heart feel before it simply collapsed under the agonizing pressure? And above all, how much hatred could simmer her blood until it melted the flesh from her bones?  

“Your actions are unforgivable.” The four troopers that flanked her shifted nervously in their seats, the animosity that radiated off of her clearly recognized by all in the vicinity, though none more than Kylo Ren. The girl felt she could have crushed the vessel with the strength of her rage, and for a moment she’s certain she can feel the metallic rafters vibrate ominously. The lights above are reflected in Rey’s eyes, a frightening spark against dark irises that flickers dangerously the longer she stares at him.  “You’ll answer for this, I promise you.”

“Will I now?” He taunts, leaning forward to brace his arms atop his knees “It seems that you had every chance to make me PAY, yet you didn’t take it. You fled with your tail between your legs and look where that has gotten you. _Coward_.” 

It was as if he KNEW what black thoughts had crept into her mind and knew the terror they left in their wake.

Her lips curl into a snarl, vision going red as invisible fingers grasp her tight, holding her fast and keeping her silent. Though her tongue remains ledden, her mind teems with an endless current of profanity and poison, unable to form coherent sentences to spew at him. Her gaze is shrapnel hurled from depths of hazel eyes that ignite in raw emotion. Such is her rage that she cared little for her safety, for anyone’s  safety. Let the void swallow them all, let their lungs burst as they perish amongst the stars. It was the least they deserved for their abominations. It was the least she deserved for not fighting harder.

Another subtle vibration wracks the ship, dimming the lights and sending the droid skittering back into a wall with whir of indignation.

A commotion a short distance away draws Rey’s gaze reluctantly away from her enemy, falling on a man with red hair and an expression so stern she might have flinched if she were less ired. His voice cuts like a knife through the air, so sharp it’s a miracle none of them are bleeding. “Subdue the girl before she destroys _another_ ship.” 

Rey is about to make a scathing retort, the ship shuddering in the tides of her rage, when  Kylo’s grip on her tightens further. Unable to speak, dark eyes fall on him, glaring as beads of sweat trickle down his brow. They struggle for several moments, both of them gasping for breath with the sheer intensity. An unstoppable force and an immovable object clashing so violently the engine began to sputter. Copper blooms across her palette, with the force of her will. _You did not come so far to give in, you did not survive all of this to be cowed by such a despicable man._ She was no match for him though, powerful as she was, she was untrained. Her clumsy attempts to wield the Force around her as she had were fuitle. It slipped through her fingers like sand through a clenched fist, vanishing before she ever had the chance to command it.

 With a flick of his wrist, Rey’s head slams back into the steel beam behind her, darkness blooming like flowers across her vision for the second time. She clings desperately to consciousness, tears of frustration streaming down flushed cheeks before lids flutter shut and she collapses back into her seat.

All aboard the ship breathe a collective sigh of relief.

**Author's Note:**

> The good news is, Finn doesn't die! The bad news is, everything gets worse forever.  
> Anyway tho I'm really excited to have y'all on this journey with me! I've crafted this puppy for two years straight and to bring it to life is my greatest joy!  
> Please let me know what you think in the comments, I know we don't have anything Fresh here in the first chapter but alas. Tis the calm before the shitstorm in space. 
> 
> You can find me on tumblr under the same pseudonym~


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